Behavior & Mayako XO Free World is the first full-length issue from an ongoing collaboration between L.A.’s Behavior (Bedros Yeretzian, Evan Burrows, Justin Tenney, Robbie Cody) and Mayako XO (Sara Gernsbacher). It was tracked between 2019 and 2020 and assembled over the course of the last year in Los Angeles. The album reflects its creation under open-ended yet intent circumstances. What’s recorded is a tangled pas de deux between discredited and demonstrative characters, singing through shifting voices over a living, melancholic music rendered legible by surveillance.
https://www.facebook.com/behaviorlosangeles
https://www.saragernsbacher.com/mayako-xo
"Chronophage’s songs are a tangled snarl of complications, composed in good part composed of agitated jitter-splattering guitars and antic drums, but also touched with the lyrical in vocal parts that unfold with a cerebral sort of ease. The slash and twitch and onslaught of their songs might put you in mind of the Fall, the Swell Maps, Fire Engines or, more recently, Protomartyr, but the nervy, baroque singing calls more ornate post-punkers to mind, Microdisney and the Monochrome Set, for example. They are easy to enjoy but hard to get a handle on.” - Dusted
Insta: @chrono_station
NAKED ROOMMATE was conceived in 2018 by Amber Sermeńo & Andy Jordan --- partners in art & life --- as a playful aside from their roles in Oakland’s most dearly-departed ensemble, THE WORLD. With a handful of twitching insta-sketches, each addled with late-nite D.I.Y. quiver, the duo’s side-hustle sprouted in classical easy/cheap fashion [see the demo tape on their Public Nipples imprint for evidence]. As “global” concerns slowed, compatriots Michael Zamora (a superbly slanted multi-instrumentalist late of BAD BAD) and Alejandra Alcala (the region’s one true bass supervisor, also of bright lights BLUES LAWYER and PREENING) joined Sermeńo & Jordan as additional exposed flesh. In full form, Naked Roommate has not only become a must-see, ever-evolving live act, but architects of Do The Duvet, one of the most intriguing and inspired recordings to come out of 2020’s American subterranea.
Their album, Do The Duvet, proffers leftfield hijinks via punk execution, answering all the questions posed by questionable post-punk revivalism with sour lemon sneering and cherry-sweet smiles. It’s a fever dream, really…A flailing, sparking wire of hyper-compressed rhythms (breathing and synthetic), devolved guitar work and minced electronic compost. The resultant congealed groove is suitable for club situations and/or living space pulsations alike. Either way, the landlord is pissed.